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Jo C., Barrister

Category: Law

Satisfied Customers: 69374

Experience: Over 5 years in practice

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Service promised but never delivered

Customer Question

I ordered a service from Virgin media, who sent me a contract which I signed. After arranging for an engineer to come to my house, they discovered the advertised service for my house wasn't available due to them not having installed the appropriate technology in the road. I was told that planning permission had be placed with the council, and my installation would take place between 4 to 6 weeks, after 4 weeks I contact them again to be told it would be a further 4 to 6 weeks. 1 week later I call to find out what's going on to be told that my order had been canceled as I had not been answering the calls to arrange my installation. I have lost a fair amount of money on phone calls chasing them, wasted over 2 months now waiting for them to install something that never seemed to be getting installed and been lied to on several occasions. They told me finally, that I can pre-make my order but have to start from the beginning before they can tell me anything about the planning and construction work at my address and they would only offer me 1 month free as a gift for all the trouble. I had already advised them that the service was imperative as we run a small online business and need the service for the business to run. They had lied to me several times over the phone and provided false promises of return calls from installation managers etc that never returned my calls. I'm currently putting a subject access request in along with a cheque for £10 so I can obtain all my recoded phone calls and notes on their system.

I've been working hard to find a Professional to assist you with your question, but sometimes finding the right Professional can take a little longer than expected.

I wonder whether you're ok with continuing to wait for an answer. If you are, please let me know and I will continue my search. If not, feel free to let me know and I will cancel this question for you.

Apologies for the delay in replying, I was off and couldn't get online. I want to know where I stand in this situation, and if there is any action I can take against the supplier. I find it slighly unbalanced when a service provider fails it's customers even against contract and can get away with it and yet as a customer if we fail we are punished.

When I was first informed about the delay I told them it was imperative we get a connection as soon as possible as we run a small online business from home which we have been unable to do. It's hard at the moment to actually tell what our loses are as we can't get onto our site to see how much business we have lost.

They didn't charge me for the service as the first Direct debit was due to come out on the first day of activation. Surely there has to be some punishment for service suppliers etc who fail so badly?

I do completely see why you are aggrieved about this but ultimately we are all hampered by the law.

I know this isn’t going to be the answer you want to hear, and it’s certainly not what I want to tell you. However, I wish to be completely honest with you, so I feel obligated to not give you false hope.

I am sorry but its bad news I'm afraid.

Come what may, they haven't charged you for the service so there is no loss here. The extent of your loss amounts to disappointment effectively. You are entitled to feel disappointed as their customer service standards are poor but you are not entitled to money compensation.

I'm sorry this isn't the answer you wanted but it is the position that you face and I have a duty to inform you truthfully.

Surely they are bound by contract to supply a service though, as I would be bound by contract to pay for the service they supply? I don't see how, should they have actually succeeded in providing the service I would have been punished if I "decided" to cancel my payments for forget the service? When they send me letters telling me I agreed on contract to pay for a service they agreed to provide? I'm not looking for any money compensation, I just want to take more action than just getting a "sorry" on the phone... and is the law really that unbalanced that companies can get away with this kind of slack attitude/action?

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